SELF-DESTRUCTING CONNECTIONS – THE LATEST WORD IN MESSAGING

Nowadays, we have such an abundance of messaging apps to choose from and yet they still demand to know our real phone numbers. When registering for WhatsApp, Viber, Kik or any other popular app, you are asked to leave a phone number or an email address. In other cases, your user handle can identify you. Even if you do delete or blacklist an intrusive “friend”, you can still be easily traced and stalked from another account. Under this approach, it does not make sense to speak of complete privacy.

Let’s take a moment to recall that security and privacy are paramount to most messenger users. New messaging app Buzz has come to offer a solution. It is based on a different concept – the use of self-destructing connections, not messages. In case both interlocutors fail to continue their chat communication within 72 hours, the connection will be closed and all contacts will be deleted. This will be especially useful to people who just started chatting or to those who want to gradually discontinue their communication after going on a bad date. That is to say, if you don’t feel like chatting, don’t!

Let Buzz take care of the aftermath by destroying your message history. By the way, dating and matching sites are full of people who’ll ask for your real phone number to “keep in touch” and “get to know you better”. However, many people are reluctant to give away their personal information, which is why they use messaging apps for closer communication. Burner and Kik were designed to serve us in such scenarios.

Unfortunately, Burner’s virtual numbers cost money. Moreover, they become inactive if you don’t top up your balance or don’t get a subscription that automatically puts money on your user account. Furthermore, if you use one number to chat with a couple of friends, you won’t be able to delete it to get rid of an annoying contact and continue chatting with other friends.

Buzz’s access codes to user accounts aren’t permanent, so you can change them at any time. Soon the company is planning to provide users with one-time codes, but they will be paid. Having got the code, you’ll be able to register on Buzz using your name or nickname. One-time codes will be renewed just like permanent ones. For your information, this is intended to ensure that user privacy is fully observed.

The idea of creating Buzz is credited to three ex-Tango employees — Matthew Groves, Brian Albright and Hanna Xu. The story goes that the three of them went into a bar where they saw a fragment of a sitcom where a girl was flirting with a guy. Groves made the call that the girl didn’t give him her real phone number, because not everybody trusts strangers enough to hand out their real numbers.

Hence, the idea of creating a communication app that would not disclose personal data came to life. iOS and Android versions of Buzz messaging app are out now.